This article reports on partial results of an investigation that focuses on meanings of the process of scrutiny of beliefs in the English Language Teaching Practicum at the State University of Londrina. Aiming at revealing both the value that five teaching practicum advisors give to the discussion of beliefs, and the value they perceive their student teachers to give to such procedure, the study analyses teacher cognitions. Data from semi-structured interviews carried out at the beginning and at the end of 2006 were analysed with the support of Grounded Theory, and discussed from the perspectives of cognition, and situated cognition. These perspectives, respectively, enable a better understanding of two tendencies found among the advisors: an apparently context-insulated one, characterised by the stability of cognitions, and a context-sensitive one, revealed by change in cognitions.
Beliefs scrutiny; teacher educators; cognition; situated cognition